Sinclair ZX Spectrum FAILS latest radio noise rules SHOCK
1980s tech for 1980s rules
A pal of mine suggested a short while back that it might be fun to obtain the blueprints for Sinclair Research’s ZX Spectrum and have a batch built up to sell to fans of retro computing. It’s a good job this plan never made it out of the pub: the dear old Speccy would have immediately fallen foul of modern electromagnetic radiation interference regulations.
How do we know? Register reader and blogger Ben Supper recently put one of these early 1980s 8-bit micros into an EM test chamber to find out.
Ben writes that, to give the Spectrum a fighting chance of making it past the rigorous EN55022 standard test, he simply powered up the computer, not the associated TV, cassette recorder and the cables that connect them all together. He also disabled the test Spectrum’s TV modulator.
Says Ben: “Six complete frequency sweeps were taken, at three angles around the equipment in horizontal and vertical polarisations, with the antenna at a height of 1.5 metres.” That, he admits, was only the first part of the EN55022 test - the recent bad weather reduced the amount of time he had available in the test chamber which prevented him from running a full set of tests.
EN55022 output: a modern 'tricky' product (top) a not-so-modern product, the ZX Spectrum (bottom)
The thick black line is the test noise limit
Source: Ben Supper
Not that it would have made much difference.
Alas the leaky machine - from a radio standpoint - ensured the Spectrum did not pass the test. “It’s not just a failure; it’s an abject one,” admitted Ben.
The Spectrum radiated enough energy at two frequencies - 42MHz and 48.8MHz - to fail the test, but noise above 100MHz, while below the failure emission levels, could easily bust the limit if the Spectrum had been fully connected up, Ben reckons.
The 42MHz peak arises as a harmonic of the machine’s 3.5MHz clock frequency, while the 48.8MHz peak almost certainly arises from radiation emitted by the Spectrum’s “rather fishy power supply and cable”. It’s also an upper harmonic of the PAL colour clock.
Of course, the Spectrum would have been designed completely differently had it been created in modern times, quite apart from being built not to exceed EN55022 noise levels. Back in the early 1980s, the Spectrum's electronics man, Richard Altwasser - who went on to design the Jupiter Ace - didn't have quite so many regulations to worry about. More to the point, now he might not have Sir Clive being quite so insistent that the kit be as cheap as possible.
You can read Ben's write-up of the test, and the background to it, here. ®
COMMENTS
EMC who cares?
Really, the BT power line modems are also an abject EMC failure but due to the money behind them ofcom, etc, don't care. The solution? They re-draft regulations to allow more noise...
Re: EMC who cares?
You should try the Home Hub 3's standard PSU.
When I first got Infinity I couldn't work out why my previously reliable network of power line kept failing to link.
A few tests later, and I found it's the cheap PSU BT supply chucking too much noise back down the mains!
Binned it.
"abject" ?
Its a marginal fail, its only 4 or 5dB above the limit, and at a couple of spot frequencies. A few minor modifications would fix it - either an "R" or a ferrite bead in the clock line, or a little work on the grounding scheme. I've seen much worse initial plots than this. Oh, and the emissions above 100MHz should be fine, look a the plot, there is no energy in the higher frequencies, it is just the test equipment noise floor. OK there might be problems with spurii and harmonics of the UHF modulator, once it gets enabled again. Not bad for the time and rather exceptional for our Clive - or Jim Westwood (see Reg's passim) to give him a proper name.
